Garment hanger



J. F. FEWSTER GARMENT HANGER Oct. 11 1938.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 4, 1937 Oct. 11, 1938. FEWSTER 2,132,895

' GARMENT HANGER Filed Dec. 4, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Oct. '11, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT V'OFFICE GARMENT HANGER James F; Fewstcr, Morrisville, Pa. ApplicationDecember 4, 1937, Serial No. 178,175

9 Claims.

This invention relates to garment hangers, and more particularly to a garment hanger especially adapted for womens apparel, and is a continuation in part of my prior application filed August 20, 1937, Serial No. 160,158 for Garment hanger.

Such apparel may be generally divided into two classes; garmets having a complete shoulder construction and those in which the shoulder construction is restricted to suspension straps or extremely narrow bands. A garment hanger the shoulder portions of which slope downwardly, as they must in order to preserve the propercontour of the completed shouldered garments, must have a smooth upper surface as, otherwise, the garment will become wrinkled. A'smooth surfaced shoulder support on a hanger, however,

garments, which when utilized with-the former will present a smooth, properly contoured surface forengagement with the shoulders of the garment and which incorporates a normally concealed but readily projectable means forretaining the shoulder straps of garments against downward sliding movement upon the shoulder supports of the hanger. r p I A more specific object, of the invention is the provision of .a hanger the shoulder supports or which. are equipped, with normally concealed hooks which, in their concealed position, are entirely disposed withinthe hanger body and serve to completethe surface thereof, and which in their, elevated positions he in spaced relation to the hanger body affording a slot within which These and other objects I attain ,the construction shown-in the accompanying drawings wherein, for the purpose of illustration, I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention n h in. a

' Figure 1 is a side elevationof a hanger embodying=a construction in accordance with my inventiony; j

., Figure;2 is a plan view thereof Figure 3 is a detailed sectional view showing the construction of one of the hooks;

' Figure 4 is a section on line 44 ofFigure 3; Figure 5 is a view similar to that of Figure 3 but'illustrating the release of the hook for movement to its operative position;

Figure 6 is a sectional view showing one modification of my construction, the hook bei'ngillustrated in its lowered position;

Figure 7 is a similar view showing the hook in its raised position; a l I Figure 8 is a section on line 8'-8 of Figure 6;

Figure 9 is a sectionalview showing a further modification of the construction; and

Figure 10 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating-the raised position of the shank of the constructionrshown in Figure 9;

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to Figures 1 to 5 thereof, the numeral lfl indicates the usual suspension member, and l I, shoulder supports the upper surfaces of which incline downwardly from the suspension memher and are curved to the general contour of the garment shoulder. The structuremay be of any usual or desired material and th'econtours of the shoulder portions may be varied to suit the needs of the particular garments with which it is to be employed.

In accordance with my invention, I place in each shoulder support adjacent the outer end thereof a casing l2, within which is slidably disposed the shank l3 of a hook, the bill l4 of which 1 has its upper surface shaped to conform to the shaping of that portion of the shoulder member with whichit coacts. This bill is preferably covered with a soft rubber covering 15 the surface of which is roughened as indicated at l6 and the surface of the shoulder member II is formed witha recess H of just 'suflicient depth, width and length to snugly receive this bill with the roughened surface 's'lightly'protruding above the top edge of the member H. The spring l8 connected to one of the'casing walls atone end and the shank I3 at its opposite end and disposed within a slot l9 formed in the shank serves three purposes; first, to constantly urge the hook up-- wardly to a position such as that shown at the left of Fig. 1; second, to raise the hook a predetermined distance; and third, it acts as a stop for the hook when said predetermined distance is attained. The inner surface of one side wall of the casing, is provided with a latch'shoulder 20 the uppersurface of which is formed as a cam 2| and a pivoted latch element 22 is swiveled in the lower end ofjtheshank; .This latch element. em-

bodies oppositely extending wings 23 and 24', of which the wing 23 has its outer upper surface adapted for engagement beneath the latch shoulder 20 and its lower inner surface constructed as a cam face 25 for coaction with the came face 2! of the latch shoulder to wedge the latch to one side and permit it to pass below the latch shoulder. Between the upper surface of the wing 24 of the latch member and the lower end of the hook shank a compression spring 26 is disposed, this spring serving to swingthe latch as soon as the wing 23 has cleared the shoulder 20 and cause this wing to pass beneath the shoulder.

Slidably mounted between the shank and the opposite wall of the casing is a trigger element 2'! the lower end of which projects through an opening 28 in the bottom of the casing and is provided with an operating head 29 for engagement by the thumb. ing, lug 3!] to engage beneath the wing 24 and against a cam surface 3lformed thereon and by coaction with this cam surface to cause the latch to swing about its pivot and clear the shoulder 20 against the action of spring 25. To reduce friction between this'lug and the cam surface, the upper surface of the lug is preferably provided with a series of ridges- 32 which directly I engage the surface. Trigger member 21 is normally disposed in a lowered'non-latch-engaging position by reason of a leaf spring 33 secured to the casing wall and engaged and flexed by the upper surface of the head as the trigger is moved upwardly to release the latch.

It will be obvious that in use of the garment support, when complete-shouldered garments are applied tothe hanger the hooks are disposed in the lowered position'shown at the right in Fig. 1,

' body 38. A spring 39 is arranged between this and that when it is desired, to use the hanger with strap-shouldered garments it is simply necraised positions shown at the left in Fig. 1 and retain 'them in these positions until they are forcibly depressed. I

In'the 'form' shown in Figures 6 to 8, the hook comprisesa bill 34, and a shank 35 whichis of relatively wide construction and joined to the bill by a restricted, neck 36. The shank 35 is furcate and has the upper end of the furcation thereof opposing a solid portion 3'! of the hanger solid portion and the upper end of the furcation and tends to constantly urge the shank upwardly,

the extent of movement of the hook by the spring being determined by a pin-and-slot engagement between the hanger body and shank as indicated at 4!]; The lower surface of the hanger body is notched, as indicated at 4!, and one arm of the shank extends, inthe lowered position of the shank, into this notch. This arm is equipped with a spring tongue 42 having a head 43 to engage beneath the lower surface of the hanger at the notch 4! and retain the hook in its lowered position; This-head, being disposed in'the notch, is not liable to contact in ordinary manipulation of the hanger, so that liability ofaccidental release of the hook is avoided. When the head is moved inwardly, it is retained in its inner position through its wiping engagement with the wall "of the opening 44 in which the shank slides. This form of the invention, due to its one-piece construction, provides an extremely cheap and readily assembled device. 3

The form of Figure 9 more closely resembles This trigger element has a projectthat of Figures 1 to 5, but illustrates a simplified method of manufacture of the same. In this form the shank 45 slides in a recess 46 in which recess a U-shaped frame 41 is disposed. Frame 47 at its upper end is substantially flush with the bottom of the recess receiving the bill 48 of the hook, and its upper end wall provides an anchorage for spring 49. The shank 45 has a circular notch 50 receiving a circular head 5| on the upper end of a latch 52 the lower end of which has a bill 53 to engage against the under face of one arm 54 of the U-shaped casing 41. It will be noted that in this structure a single spring 49 serves both to force the hook upwardly and 'to bias the latch into proper position for engagement with the lowered end of the arm54 of frame '41. It, furthermore, serves to hold this latch in a position such that a shoulder 55 formed thereon will engage beneath the other and abbreviated arm 56 of the frame 41, thus limiting upward movement of the hook. The. structures of Figures 6 to 10 further differentiate from the structure of Figures 1 to 5 in the manner of applying the non-friction material to the bill of the hook. In these figures the upper surface of the hook is provided with a rubber surface 51 directly vulcanized thereto.

Since the constructions illustrated are, obviously, capable of considerable modification without departing from the spirit of the invention, I do not wish'to be understood as limiting mysel thereto except as hereinafter. claimed.

I claim:

1. In a garment hanger, a central suspension means and shoulder supports the upper surfaces of which diverge downwardly from the suspension means, a hook carried by each support and comprising a shank vertically slidable in a recess in the support and a bill in parallelism to the general direction of extension o'f the adjacent portions of the upper surface of the hanger, the bill'of said hook in a lowered position being substantially concealed within the recess in the support and having its upper surface substantially flush with the upper surface of the support, and in an elevated position being in spaced relation to the support surface to permit introduction of the shoulder element of a garment therebetween,

and means to retain said hook in either of said positions.

' 2. In a garment hanger, a central suspension means and shoulder supports the upper surfaces of which diverge downwardly from the suspension means, a hook carried by each support and comprising a shank vertically slidable in a recess in the support and a bill in parallelism to the general direction of extension of the adjacent portions of the upper surface of the hanger,

the bill of said hook in a lowered position being substantially concealed within the recess in, the support and having its upper surface substantially flush with the uppers-urface of the support, and in an elevated position being in spaced relation to the support surface to permit intro duction of the shoulder element of a garment therebetween, means to yieldably' maintain the hook in its elevated position and a latch to retain the hook in its lowered position.

3. In a garment hanger, a central suspension means and shoulder supports the upper surfaces of which diverge downwardly from the suspension means, a hook carried by each support and comprising a shank vertically slidable in a recess in the support and a bill in parallelism to the general direction of extension of the adjacent portions of the upper surface of the hanger, the bill of said hook in a lowered position being substantially concealed within the recess in the support and having its upper surface substantially flush with'the'upper surface of the support,

and in an elevated position being in spaced re-v lation to the support surface to permit introduction of the shoulder element of a garment therebetween, means to yieldably maintain the hook in its elevated position, a spring-pressed latch to retain the hook in its lowered position, a trigger to engage and release the latch and a spring normally maintaining said trigger out of latch-engaging position.

4. In a garment hanger, a central suspension means and shoulder supports the upper surfaces of which diverge downwardly from the suspension means, a hook carried by each support and comprising a shank vertically slidable in a recess in the support and a bill in parallelism to the general direction of extension of the adjacent portions of the upper surface of the hanger, the

bill of said hook in a lowered position being substantially concealed within the recess in the support and having its upper surface substantially flush with the upper surface of the support, and

in an elevated position being in spaced relation 5. The structure of claim-2 wherein a single spring serves to maintain the hook in its elevated position and bias the latch to its latching position.

, hanger body.

6. The device of claim 1 :wherein the shank is furcate and has the upper end wall of the furcation in opposition to an underlying abutment rigid to the hanger body, and a compression spring extends between said wall and said abutment.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the shank is furcate and has the upper end wall of the tunation in opposition to an underlying abutment rigid to the hanger body, and a compression spring extends between said wall and said abutment, and a pin-and-slot connection between the shank and hanger limiting movement of the hook under influence of the spring.

8. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the shank has a latch element pivoted thereto adapted for engagement with a rigid abutment when the hook is in its lowered position, and a tension spring connected between the latch and a point of attachment rigid to the hanger body serves to constantly urge said latch to its latching position and said hook to an elevated position when the latch is released.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein there are vertically spaced abutments rigid to the hanger body and the shank has a latch element pivoted thereto adapted for engagement with the lower abutment when the hook is in its lowered position, and a tension spring connected between the latch and a point of attachment rigid to the hanger body serves to constantly urge said latch to its latching position and said hook to an elevated'position when the latch is released, said latch in the elevated position of the hook engaging the upper abutment to the J AMES 1''. FEWSTER. 

